Come let us reason together
There are two institutions that God created during the week of creation and that existed before the fall of Adam and Eve: Marriage and the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was established at creation. Gen 2 and was a commandment just as much as God telling Adam and Eve not to eat from the forbidden tree in the midst of the garden.
This is incorrect. Notice the absence of any commandment relating to the Sabbath in Genesis 2.
Gen 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
There likewise is no commandment regarding marriage. This is further highlighted in 1 Corinthians 7:6-8
But I speak this by permission, and
not of commandment.
For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
I say therefore to the unmarried and widows,
It is good for them if they abide even as I.
Marriage and the Sabbath are institutions, not commandments. It is not a sin to remain unmarried (Paul even states it is a good thing), just as it is not a sin to not observe the Sabbath.
Come let us reason together
There are two institutions that God created during the week of creation and that existed before the fall of Adam and Eve: Marriage and the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was established at creation. Gen 2 and was a commandment just as much as God telling Adam and Eve not to eat from the forbidden tree in the midst of the garden.
The ten commandments of God includes the Sabbath commandment. Ex 20:8-11. God's ten commandments were written with the very finger of God. Ex 31:18; thus they are a transcript of the character of God. His character changes not!
Again, an institution is not a commandment. God later instituted the covenant of circumcision with Abraham.
The 10 commandments were given to Moses for the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham. On these was obliged the covenant of circumcision. If you are going to claim that the 10 commandments from Exodus are binding on Christians, you also need to claim that circumcision and the rest of the law is. Given that Galatians states circumcision is not binding on Christians, neither then is any other aspect of the law, including the Sabbath commandment.
We see the true consistency of God in establishing His Sabbath throughout scripture. God is not a god of confusion. I Cor 14:33. No where does it state that He changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first. The Sabbath commandment was given to all mankind: The Sabbath was made for man... Mark 2:27 This verse includes all mankind: male and female.
No one is claiming God changed the day of the Sabbath (to my knowledge). The Sabbath is and always was a Saturday. However, it is non-binding on Christians, the same as circumcision.
The Sabbath was given as a commandments to the Children of Israel because they had lost sight of God and what He required of them due to 430 years of enslavement in a pagan land. They had to be reeducated on who God was and His expectations for His people.
So was circumcision. You can't consistently require Sabbath observance without first requiring circumcision observance.
Who kept the Sabbath?
Jews and Gentiles kept the Sabbath - The early Christian church kept the sabbath!
Acts 13:42-44
42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And when the next sabbath day came almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
*Notice that the Gentiles ask for these words to be preached to them the next sabbath. If the first day was kept by the Gentiles, why didn't they ask for these words to be preached to them tomorrow or the next day?
Some of the early Christian church also worshipped on Sunday, and some were circumcised. It doesn't mean it is binding on Christians today.
Acts 20:7 And upon the first
day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
Acts 16:1-3
Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.
Origin of First Day Worship
Sunday worship is a Catholic church institution. If you ask a priest where did Sunday worship originate from, they will tell you that it came from the Catholic church. A great resource of the Catholic church that addresses this matter is taken from the Catholic Mirror, Rome's Challenge Why Do Protestants Keep Sunday? (September of 1893) ISBN-13:978-1-57258-052-7.
In the pages of this brochure the Catholic church accuses protestants of a glaring contradiction: Says the Catholic church "The bible alone unequivocally and most positively commands Saturday to be kept 'holy,' whilst the Protestants' practice proves that they utterly ignore the unequivocal requirements of their teacher, the Bible, ..."
*Please do you own research.
This is not the origin of Sunday worship. As I indicated above, there are scriptural examples of the disciples worshiping on Sunday.
